Islam dominated the north and had a number of supporters in the South Western, Yoruba part of the country. Nigeria has the largest Muslim population in sub-Saharan Africa. In terms of Nigeria's major ethnic groups' religious affiliations, the Hausa ethnic group in the North is 95% Muslims and 5% Christians, the West which is the Yoruba tribe is 35% Christians and 55% Muslim with 10% going to adherents of other African religions, while the Igbos of the East and the Ijaw in the South are 98% Christians (Catholics) and 2% practitioners of traditional religions.[7] The middle belt of Nigeria contains the largest number of minority ethnic groups in Nigeria and they are mostly Christians and members of traditional religions with few Muslim converts.[8][9]

According to a 2001 report[13] from The World Factbook by CIA, about 50% of Nigeria's population is Muslim, 40% are Christians and 10% adhere to local religions.[14] But in some recent report, the Christian population is now sightly larger than the Muslim population. An 18 December 2012 report on religion and public life by the Pew Research Center stated that in 2010, 49.3 percent of Nigeria's population was Christian, 48.8 percent was Muslim, and 1.9 percent were followers of indigenous and other religions, or unaffiliated.[15] Additionally, the 2010s census of Association of Religion Data Archives has reported that 46.5 percent of the total population is Christian, slightly bigger than the Muslim population of 45.5 percent, and that 7.7 percent are members of other religious groups.[16]

Christianity is one of the three main religions in Nigeria, according to a recent report conducted in 2011, nearly half of Nigerians are Christians.[14] Among Christians, 24.8% are Catholic, 74.1% are Protestant, 0.9% belong to other Christian denominations and a few of them are Orthodox Christians.[23] The ecclesiastical provinces of the Church of Nigeria are: Lagos, Ibadan, Ondo, Bendel, The Niger, Niger Delta, Owerri, Abuja, Kaduna and Jos.[24] Its primate is Nicholas Okoh.[24] The Church of Nigeria has about 17 million members.[25]

The Archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church are: Abuja, Onitsha, Benin City, Calabar, Ibadan, Lagos, and Owerri.[27] It has about 39 million members in Nigeria.[28] Cardinal Francis Arinze is a Roman Catholic Cardinal from Nigeria.[29] There are over 300,000 Early Pentecostal Apostolic Churches parishes in Nigeria having about 4.2 million adherent. Such denominations in this group are:

The Christ Apostolic Church,

The Apostolic Church,

The Celestial Church,

The Cherubim and Seraphim Church et cetera.

There are also about 380,000 New Apostolic Church parishes constituting about 6.5 million believers|New Apostolic Christians in Nigeria include: 1) The Redeemed Church, 4) Deeper Life Church, 5) Overcomers ministries and other new springs. Bye and large Protestantism particularly the Pentecostals, Apostolic and evangelicals constitute the major Christian population of Nigeria from the late 1990s to the present.

The majority of Christians are found in the south east, South-South, south west and Middle-belt region. An increasing number of mission stations and mission bookstores, along with churches serving southern enclaves and northern Christians in the northern cities and larger towns, are found in the Muslim north. Christianity in Yoruba area traditionally has been Protestant and Anglican, currently Protestant Pentecostal/evangelicals, whereas Igboland has always been the area of greatest activity by the Roman Catholic Church with current infusions of Protestantism. Other denominations abounded as well. Presbyterians arrived in the late 17th century in the Ibibio, Annang and Efik land and the Niger Delta area and had missions in the middle belt as well. The works of the Presbyterian Church in Calabar from Scotland by missionaries like Rev Hope M. Waddell, who arrived in Calabar 10 April 1846, in the 19th century and that of Mary Slessor of Calabar are examples. Small missionary movements were allowed to start up, generally in the 1920s, after the middle belt was considered pacified. Each denomination set up rural networks by providing schooling and health facilities. Most such facilities remained in 1990, although in many cases schools had been taken over by the local state government in order to standardize curricula and indigenize the teaching staff. Pentecostals arrived mostly as indigenous workers in the post-independence period, and in the 1980s, Evangelical and Apostolic Pentecostalism were spreading rapidly throughout the south western and middle belt, having major success in hitherto Roman Catholic and Protestant towns of the south as well. There were also breakaway, or Africanized churches, that blended traditional Christian symbols with indigenous symbols. Among these was the Aladura (preyer) movement that was spreading rapidly throughout Yoruba land and into the non-Muslim middle belt areas.

Apart from Benin and Warri, which had come in contact with Christianity through the Portuguese as early as the 15th century, most missionaries arrived by sea in the 19th century. As with other areas in Africa, Roman Catholics and Anglicans each tended to establish areas of hegemony in southern Nigeria. After World War I, smaller denominations such as the Church of the Brethren (as Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria), Seventh-day Adventists and others worked in interstitial areas, trying not to compete. Although less well-known, African-American churches entered the missionary field in the 19th century and created contacts with Nigeria that lasted well into the colonial period.

African churches were founded by small groups breaking off from the European denominations, especially in Yorubaland, where such independence movements started as early as the early 19th century- influenced by American and British missionaries in early 1900s and stimulated by the great revival of the 1930s. They were for the most part ritually and doctrinally identical to the parent church, although more African music, and later dance and dressage/vesture, entered and mixed with the imported church services. Notable among the new- springs of 1930 were such Protestant Pentecostals as the Christ Apostolic Church - an offshoot of USA based Faith Tabernacle which swept through the Western Region and complimented by the likes of the Celestial Church and the Cherubim and Seraphim Church which were indigenous autonomous springs. A number of indigenous denominations used Biblical references to support polygamy. With political independence came African priests in both Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations, although ritual and forms of worship were strictly those of the home country of the original missionaries. By the 1980s, however, African music and even dancing were being introduced quietly into western oriented church services, albeit altered to fit into rituals of Euro-American origin. Southern Christians living in the north, especially in larger cities, had congregations and churches founded as early as the 1920s. Even medium-sized towns (20,000 persons or more) with an established southern enclave had local churches, especially in the middle belt, where both major religions had a strong foothold. The exodus of Igbo from the north in the late 1960s left Roman Catholic churches poorly attended, but by the 1980s adherents were back in even greater numbers, and a number of new churches had been built. the middle belt and the west and southwest remain the hold of Protestants (Pentecostal, evangelical and indigenous spring of Christian denominations).

The Aladura, like several other breakaway churches, stress healing and fulfillment of life goals for oneself and one's family. African beliefs that sorcery and witchcraft are malevolent forces against which protection is required are accepted; rituals are warm and emotional, stressing personal involvement and acceptance of spirit possession. Theology is biblical, but some sects add costumed processions and some accept polygyny.

Major congregations of the larger Anglican and Roman Catholic missions represented elite families of their respective areas, although each of these churches had members from all levels and many quite humble church buildings. Nevertheless, a wedding in the Anglican cathedral in Lagos was usually a gathering of the elite of the entire country, and of Lagos and Yorubaland in particular. Such families had connections to their churches going back to the 19th century and were generally not attracted to the breakaway churches. All major urban centers, all universities, and the new capital of Abuja had areas set aside for the major religions to build churches and mosques and for burial grounds.

Islam is one of the religions practiced in West Africa. Nigeria has one of the largest Muslim populations in West Africa, with more than 50% of Nigeria's population being Muslim.[30] Islam was introduced to northern Nigeria as early as the 11th century and was well established in the major capitals of the region by the 16th century, spreading into the countryside and toward the Middle Belt uplands. Shehu Usman dan Fodio established a government in Northern Nigeria based on Islam before the advent of Colonialism. The British Colonial Government therefore established indirect rule in Northern Nigeria based on the structure of this government. Islam also came to South Western Yoruba-speaking areas during the time of Mansa Musa's Mali Empire. The Yoruba colloquially referred to Islam as "Esin-Mali" or some will say "Esin-Mole", which means religion from Mali.

The vast majority of Muslims in Nigeria are Sunni belonging to Maliki school of jurisprudence; however, a sizeable minority also belongs to Shafimadhhab. A large number of SunniMuslims are members of Sufi brotherhoods. Most Sufis follow the Qadiriyya, Tijaniyyah and/or Mouride movement. Nigerian Islam has become heterogenous with the springing up of many Islamic sects. Notable examples are the Izala movement,[31][32] the Shia movement, and many local Islamic sects that have limited expansion. These new sects are opposed to the traditional Nigerian Islamic teachings of the Sufi brotherhood and are gradually alienating themselves from the main Islamic body.

The Shia Muslims of Nigeria are primarily located in the Sokoto State.[33][34] Shia Muslims make up roughly four to two million of Nigerias population.[35][36]Ibrahim Zakzaky introduced many Nigerians to Shia Islam.

Some Nigerian Muslims emphasize asceticism and mysticism and usually form groups called "tariqas", "Sufi orders" or Sufi brotherhoods". These Sufis mix Islam with music and dancing. Most Sufis follow the Qadiriyya, Tijaniyyah and/or Mouride movement. [check quotation syntax]

The Ahmadiyya movement established itself in Nigeria in 1916,[37] and make up approximately 3% of the Muslim population.[38] There are numerous Ahmadiyya centres in Nigeria including the Baitur-Raheem Mosque in Ibadan inaugurated in 2008,[39] the Mubarak Mosque in Abuja, which is the last Ahmadiyya mosque, built in the first century of the Ahmadiyya Caliphate.[40] Ahmadiyyas have also established a weekly newspaper called "The Truth" which is the first Muslim newspaper in the country.[41]

The Kalo Kato are a Nigerian group of Quranists. Their name means "a mere man said it" referring to Muhamad. The Kalo Kato rely entirely on the Quran and they are found among poor communities across northern Nigeria.[12]

These sects have sometimes resorted to the use of violence in a bid to realizing their ambitions on the wider Islamic and Nigerian populations as a whole.[44]

The rise of this radical movements has been attributed partly to the poor socio economic infrastructures and poor governance in Nigeria.[45]Poverty has been seen as the major catalyst leading to the rapid increase in the membership of these religious extremist groups.[46] The rise of these sects has also been linked to the increase and aiding of religious extremist by politicians for their selfish ambitions.

During the 1980s religious riots occurred in and around the five cities of Kano in 1980, Kaduna in 1982, Bulum-Ketu in 1982, Jimeta in 1984 and Gombe in 1985. These riots were caused by the migration of the rural poor into urban towns during the dry seasons. An offshoot of Islam called the ‘Yan Tatsine’ violently rebelled against the authorities and non-members. These radical Muslims were inspired by Alhaji Mohammed Marwa Maitatsine. He was a Cameroon preacher who slated the government, something which lead to his arrest in Nigeria in 1975, yet by 1972 many people followed him across society, ranging from the elite to Koranic students called almajiral or gardawa and unemployed migrants. Maitatsine and his followers became separate from orthodox Islam, condemning the corruption of the religious and secular elites and the wealthy upper classes’ consumption of Western goods during the petrol boom in 1974-81.[47] The Boko Haram movement has been connected to the Maitatsine movement. They want to implement sharia law across the whole of Nigeria.[48]

In the city-states of Yorubaland and its neighbors, a more reserved way of life remains, one that expresses a theology that links local beliefs to a central citadel government and its sovereignty over a hinterland of communities through the monarch. The seat of the king (oba) is responsible for the welfare of its jurisdiction, in return for confirmation of the legitimacy of the oba's rule over his subjects.

In addition to ensuring access to, and the continual fertility of, both land and people, seasonal carnivals act as a spectacle for "tourism" contributing to regional productivity.

"Society in general has more gradually and selectively expanded to accommodate new influences, it is fairly certain that they will continue to assert their distinctive cultural identity in creative and often ingenious ways".[49]

In the 1980s, serious outbreaks between Christians and Muslims occurred in Kafanchan in southern Kaduna State in a border area between the two religions, propagated by extreme leaders who were able to rally a young, educated group of individuals who were feared that the nation would not be able to protect their religious group.[50] The leaders were able to polarize their followers through speeches and public demonstrations.[51][check quotation syntax] The activities of some of these sects has in recent times led to the loss of lives and properties as they move about destroying government facilities which they see as legacies or replica of western cultures in their various communities. These religious campaigns have seen an increase in gun battles between the members of these sects and security forces with loss of lives witnessed on both sides.[52] Although direct conflicts between Christians and Muslims were rare, tensions did flare between the two groups as each group radicalised. There were clashes in October 1982 when Muslim zealots in Kano were able to enforce their power in order to keep the Anglican House Church from expanding its size and power base as they saw it as a threat to the nearby Mosque, even though the Anglican House Church had been there forty years prior to the building of the Mosque.[53] Additionally, there were two student groups in Nigeria who came into contestation, the Fellowship of Christian Students and the Muslim Student Society. In one instance there was an evangelical campaign organised by the FCS and brought into question why one sect should dominate the campus of the Kafanchan college of education. This quarrel accelerated to the point where the Muslim students organised protests around the city and culminated in the burning of a Mosque at the college. The Christian majority at the college retaliated on March 9 when twelve people died and several Mosques were burnt and a climate of fear brews. The retaliation was pre-planned.[54]

Exploitation of the media used to propagate the ideas of the conflict, thereby radicalising each force even more. Media was biased on each side so while places like the federal radio corporation discussed the idea of defending Islam during this brief moment of terror but does not report the deaths and damage caused by Muslims, galvanising the Muslim population. Similarly, the Christian papers did not report the damage and deaths caused by Christians but focused on the Islamic terror.[55] Other individuals leading these religious movements use the media to spread messages which gradually became more intolerant of other religions and because of these religious divisions radical Islam continues to be a problem in Nigeria today.[56]

Recently, there has been an upsurge in attacks targeting Christians in northern Nigeria, culminating in the Christmas Day massacre at a catholic church near the Federal Capital Territory. The radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for the bomb blast.

Hinduism spread to Nigeria mainly by immigration of Hindus from India and of Hare Krishna Missionaries. Many Nigerians have converted to Hinduism mainly due to efforts of ISKCON Missionaries. ISKCON has inaugurated the Vedic Welfare Complex in Apapa.[57]

Altogether including Nigerians of Indian origin and NRIs there are 25,000 Hindus in Nigeria. Most of them live in Lagos, the former capital of Nigeria

A fraternity incorporating references and insignia from the original Ogboni, is based on ancient rites, usages and customs. Established in 1914 by the Ven. Archdeacon T. A. J. Ogunbiyi. Membership is open to all adults who embrace a non-idolaterous faith in God. The fraternity is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. In 1996 it had about 710 conclaves/Lodges or Iledi in Nigeria and overseas.[60]

^Universal House of Justice; prepared under the supervision of the Universal House of Justice. (1986). In Memoriam. The Bahá'í World of the Bahá'í Era 136-140 (1979-1983). XVIII (Bahá'í World Centre). pp. Table of Contents and pp.619, 632, 802–4. ISBN0-85398-234-1.